Hot tips for book tour, stellar restaurants and ongoing GPS wars

Follow Pam and Jimmy's latest escapades along the Florida panhandle through Tallahassee and Jacksonville. Pam offers some excellent advice on how to locate prime book stores and what valuable supplies to bring on your travels.

July 7th, 2008.
Left Pensacola for Tallahassee listening to the Big Bopper on the radio (Chantilly lace and a pretty face and a pony tail hanging down..." The Big Bopper died in a plane crash in Iowa in the 1950's along with Richie Valence and Buddy Holly...Chantilly Lace and a pretty face and a pony tail, hangin' down... Oh well.

Here's a thing I have learned on this trip that was highlighted for some reason in Tallahassee. You cannot count on general internet information for the location of Barnes & Noble stores. I searched 'bookstores in Tallahassee as I always do, and included in the list were three B&N locations. Two of them did not exist. So be sure to double-check addresses on the B&N web site, which of course is accurate for B&N listings, even if you find stores listed elsewhere on the internet. Or you can just call the locations. Two of the three listed for Tallahassee were no longer in order - don't know if they had moved, or if the internet listing (not the B&N website) were hoaxes.

In Tallahassee I found copies of my book to sign in several stores and received very friendly receptions, with the exception of the manager of Borders in that city who left me feeling somewhat like an orphan, unlike in other cities. (I swore to myself that I'd tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth...). Oh well - can't win them all.

Tip - One thing I've learned is that even when there's a corporate policy to put your book here, or there, it's often overlooked by local stores. This is not intentional, it's just a result of the number of books that are received by the stores. So when you visit, if you know that other stores have featured your book in a certain place, or have it on a recommended list of some kind, be sure to tell the manager. Generally they are more than happy to have you sign their copies of the books, put stickers on them if they have them, and place them in the right place (which in most authors' minds is any place more prominent than the last place that the book resided!)

Note - remember my earlier advice to bring autograph stickers with you? Well, I forgot. For those of you planning your own tour, be sure to remember to order those well in advance. Places like Office Depot and Sir Speedy require a week or two to print them.

We had dinner in Tallahassee at one of the best restaurants's ever - Torreya Grill. This is a Greek restaurant, and even though the dishes don't seem especially Greek, the receipes contained herbs and spices that made them really special - in particular, lots of garlic. I had Country apple pecan roast duck - crispy, with an apple pecan chutney. Jimmy had prime rib cooked perfectly. This was pure comfort food.

One thing about Tallahassee - there are huge street signs at every corner that you can actually read! This is a beautiful city, large but with the feel of a small town. Hills, cypress and oak forests--really the kind of place you can imagine yourself living in with no trouble at all.There's also a lot of construction.

July 8th - After visiting four bookstores, off to Jacksonville. Amazing Grace went on strike again--tricked us into going south instead of east for awhile, then played possum. She has a new name now - Calamity Jane. Ran into a huge rainstorm and Grace just refused to help. Finally remembered the new car has On Star, so Grace had some competition. After a few false starts, On Star guided us into Jacksonville and Grace just sulked. The battle of GPS. Grace better watch it - she may be out of a job if she's not careful.

Speaking of the new car - it has a compass on it and the compass disappeared today. Seems we moved into a new geographical zone or something. Checking the manual - here's how you recallibrate the compass: you have to drive around in circles at about 5 miles per hour for about 7 minutes! I laughed so hard I almost cried. Jimmy didn't really see the humor in it. (I don't think we're going to have the compass any more, though).

Just arrived in Jacksonville tonight and had dinner at a nice little micro-brewery called Seven Bridges. Sat in the outdoor cafe under rows of yellow lights and had a glass of their local brew and bruschetta on garlic toast with onions and capers.

Here's how our daily schedule seems to have resolved: Up around 8:30a.m, (mainly because we're generally working late and also because of black out curtains), breakfast - visiting bookstores until about 3:00, and driving to the next city. Arriving around 7:00 PM, dinner and relaxing, and then catch up on work until midnight or so. Which, for me, means checking out bookstores to be visited the next day, mapping them so we're not criss-crossing a strange town, and checking out blogs for my book and trying not to look at internet sales rankings, and every few days, writing this blog to you.

Tomorrow, as far as I can tell, we have eleven (11!) bookstores to visit. And that's just in Jacksonville. Must be a lot of readers here - this is writers' heaven. We may stay here two nights because there are lots of small towns on the coast around here, in addition to all those bookstores I just mentioned.

Then on to Gainsville. We have to be in Orlando on Saturday because my editor has invited us to attend the Christie Awards on Saturday night in that city, and Karen Ball, one of the B&H editors and a wonderful fiction writer is a nominee this year. In Orlando I have a booksigning that my publisher has scheduled for The Moon in the Mango Tree at the International Christian Retail Show at the Orange County Convention Center. on Monday, and a breakfast for B&H authors on Tuesday morning Jimmy and I are looking forward to this - it should be fun.